The oval barns around Beyssenac

Start from the square in front of Beyssenac church.

(S/E) With your back to the church, turn left and, after the post office, turn right onto the D107 towards Pompadour.

(1) Take the^first track on the left. At the end, turn left onto the D7.

(2) Take the^first road on the right, towards Germignac. At the next two junctions, ignore the roads on the left and carry on towards the hamlet of Le Clédier.

(3) About fifty metres before the farm, turn into the meadow on the right. Cross the meadow towards the small copse, then cross the second meadow towards the woods. Follow the path through the woods (not shown on the map) as far as Deux Rieux.

(4) Continue up the road. At the junction, leave the road on your left and head towards La Flotte.

(5) At the three-way junction, near a pond, turn left towards Les Palissas. Walk through the hamlet.

(6) Ignore the road on the right and carry straight on. After a right-hand bend at a right angle, leave the road and follow the parallel path on the left until you reach the D7.

(7) Cross the road and first turn left then right to continue straight on towards Le Méchenin.

(8) In the village, at a T-junction, turn right. At the next junction, turn left. At the following junction, turn right towards La Varonie.

(9) At the fork in the road, take the left-hand track. At the next junction, go straight on. At the crossroads, turn left. After the oval barn, turn left again.

(1) Continue straight on along the road to Beyssenac (S/E).

Follow the pink signposts, route no. 15, entitled “Germignac”.

The oval barns: today, these oval barns have swapped their thatched roofs for sheet metal ones. Their construction was characteristic of this area; they were built from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century. Their distinctive feature lies in the fact that the roof rests on a framework, separate from the non-load-bearing walls.

The 12th-century Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint Médard, was restored in the 14th, 18th, 19th and early 21st centuries with the support of the Fondation du Patrimoine. It features contemporary stained-glass windows made of glass and cement. These windows are the work of Benedictine monks from Fleury Abbey in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire.
It is a Romanesque-era building, with the west entrance and the nave likely dating from the 14th century. Médard was Bishop of Noyon in the 6th century, and all manner of miracles are attributed to him. It was he who consecrated Queen Radegonde to God when, as Queen of the Franks, she decided to take the veil.

In the past, Beyssenac was home to a commandery of the Order of Malta, with a chapel of devotion that housed an enamelled copper reliquary. The Order of Malta was the first religious and military order to emerge from the Crusades. Founded in the mid-11th century, it welcomed sick and needy pilgrims into its hospices.

The Saint-Fiacre fountain (near the church) is said to have healing properties for convulsions and digestive disorders.

The Moulin du Pont Lasveyras: Situated on the banks of the Auvézère, it is one of those places where history has left its mark: on 16 February 1944, 34 young Resistance fighters from the Violette Battalion were executed by a German firing squad, 12 were deported (7 of whom escaped), and 3 survived the attack.
The mill is now a memorial site where an exhibition recounting these events is open to the public every summer (on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from July to September).